Leader: Looking for leadership in a sea of cutbacks
Newsdesk • Published 1 Jul 2010 09:00
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HOWEVER tough it became for the economy in other parts of the country, we have always seemed capable of riding out the crisis.
The natural prosperity of the Royal County of Berkshire or the manufactured high-tech wealth of its Silicon Valley alias meant that in general we felt pretty much immune.
Our local government leaders raked in the council tax, uttered perennial complaints about the lack of financial support from Whitehall and just about managed to get by; and with unemployment always low they never had to deal with the kind of social and public health problems associated with parts of the land where the dole queues rarely seem to get shorter.
With the advent of the Coalition Government in May the pressure is suddenly on, and journalists on this newspaper find themselves reporting cuts to the kinds of services which in living memory have rarely been known to struggle.
Any kind of reduction in the services provided by Connexions, for example, would be devastating for their young clients fighting to regain their feet in a tough, tough world. And reductions in levels of care for the disabled and elderly would be equally catastrophic.
A policy of cutting now and thinking later is all very well, but this is a time for leadership. Those politicians of all ranks, who barely two months ago were begging for our support, should remember that.
When things improve, we will not forget those who provided leadership.
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